CLEVELAND — Thank goodness the easy part of the schedule’s finally here.
Yeah, right.
The bumbling and uninspired Patriots committed four turnovers, which the lowly Cleveland Browns parlayed into 13 points. That would prove to be plenty as Cleveland held on to defeat New England, 19-11 at Cleveland Browns Stadium.
Drew Bledsoe played the entire game, much to the surprise of most everyone watching the game. Bledsoe had a hand in each of the Patriot turnovers, and showed that his ability to throw the football is severely lessened due to the jammed thumb he suffered last week against Buffalo.
Early in the second quarter, with the score knotted at 3, Bledsoe let fly a pass from his own 43 that was batted at the line of scrimmage by Darius Holland. Holland managed to hold on to the ball for the interception, and the Browns embarked on a 10 play, 59-yard drive that culminated with a 9-yard pass from Doug Pedersen to Aaron Shea.
Three plays into their next offensive possession, Bledsoe mishandled a snap and fumbled. Stalin Colinet pounced on the loose ball, and the Browns marched off on another 10 play drive, with Patriot castoff Phil Dawson kicking a 44-yard field goal to make it 13-3 Cleveland.
On their first drive of the second half, the Patriots began to pick up momentum, as they were able to drive 56 yards to the Cleveland 6. But on first and goal, Bledsoe led Kevin Faulk too far on a pitchout, and Faulk fumbled. Orpheus Roye recovered for Cleveland.
Finally, on the first play of the fourth quarter, Bledsoe was blindsided by Colinet on a pass rush, and the ball was knocked loose. Marcus Spriggs recovered the fumble, and the Browns cashed in with Dawson’s fourth field goal of the game, this time from 35 yards out.
Bledsoe was able to rally the Patriots to a late touchdown pass to Rod Rutledge, followed by a Faulk run for a two-point conversion. But the Browns had gone into a prevent defense on that series, and after reverting back to their earlier game plan shut the Patriots out the rest of the way.
The game marked the return to Cleveland for head coach Bill Belichick. Belichick was the subject of crowd taunting throughout most of the game, angry fans who still blame him for the original Cleveland franchise moving to Baltimore after the 1995 season.
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Covering Boston Sports since 1997. Native of Worcester, Mass. Attended UMass and Univ of Michigan. Lives in California. Just recently retired after 40 years of public school teaching. Podcasts on YouTube at @thepic4139
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